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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Being flexable with dinner plans allowed for a satisfying reward...

On the way home from doing some errands yesterday afternoon, I drove past a local farm that had a couple kids sitting behind a small card table practically overflowing with ears of freshly picked white sweet corn. I quickly did a u-turn and got in line to grab a few ears for us - while I had another recipe planned for dinner last night, once I got my hands on the corn, I made a bee-line for my ever-growing recipe piles as I had just the recipe in mind.

The rest of the ingredients for this Fresh Corn Risotto used pantry staples for us, so I didn't even need to make a run to the market after changing plans. Simple fresh ingredients are the key that move this risotto into must make again category.

Made in typical risotto fashion, short-grain arborio rice is stirred and stirred with scoops of warm chicken stock to leach the rice's natural starchy quality out, resulting in an ultra-creamy dish. A little more than halfway through the cooking time, a couple ears worth of the fresh white corn kernels are stirred into the bubbling rice to gently cook until the rice achieves that toothsome al dente texture. A heaping mound of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a couple nobs of butter are the finishing touch, adding a mouthwatering salty richness along with pushing the creaminess of the dish one step further. Jeff, with a scowling look on his face, wanted to make sure I plugged his only comment - "Do not ever lose this recipe!".